Hi DIY!
My headphones of many years recently broke. My first response was to attempt to glue them back together with super glue (ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate) however that didn’t seem to hold. Not even a little bit.
I then did a bit of searching and found that Sony often use ABS plastic in headphone manufacture, so presumably these are ABS. I then read super glue should work okay on ABS, however there seemed to be no bonding happening at all.
Do any of you have any tips for the best kind of glue or epoxy to bond these plastic parts back together and get the music flowing again?
I plan on wrapping the joints in thread afterwards, for additional durability. But first I need to get them bonded.
UV Glue will fix that no problems, and the glue will be stronger than the underlying plastic.
I have never seen this to be true.
The problem with uv glue is it needs light to cure. So it can’t be used to fill that broken area or inside the break itself. It can only coat the outside.
Not with that attitude (unscrews the entire thing and shoves in a UV light on a wire in the gaps)
Next time I find myself with the right assortment of junk, it would be interesting to run a piece of optical fiber through UV glue inside an opaque enclosure and see if it helps the light get where it needs to go. There’s decorative stuff that glows from the sides with a visible light source so I’d expect it to do something worthwhile in that situation. Could be a waste of materials for almost every possible use but maybe it’ll solve a weird problem eventually.
I didn’t even know there was such a thing. Buying a UV lamp for a single repair when other options are available feels a bit antithetical to the Solarpunk ethos though, so I think I’ll try normal glues first. But hey, if all else fails, at least I know there’s a nuclear option as plan b. Thanks!
There is a JB Weld UV glue product that comes with a UV LED attached:
https://www.jbweld.com/product/superweld-light-activated
It’s a blend, not pure UV resin, that will harden quickly where the light hits it but will also slowly cure without UV exposure, so the inner parts of the joint will harden over time.
I use this and I’ve found that it is almost as good as standard 2-part epoxy in most cases, and easier to use.
You can also cure UV glue in sunlight. It’s a bit of a pain and can take longer, but it’s an option.
Solar
punkglue. Hmm…If you’re trying to be true to the “solarpunk ethos,” do you really think this is the last repair you’ll ever do?
I, for one, have never regretted letting a ‘one time’ project be an excuse to get a new type of tool.
(Just don’t get the disposable UV light another reply mentioned; that really is a bit wasteful. If you decide to go the UV glue route, get an inexpensive but proper standalone UV flashlight.)
Depends on the tool and its cost for me. If its something I can realistically see using again and is a reasonable price then sure.